Uttar Pradesh: At least 42 people die of fever in Bareilly and Badaun districts, say reports

At least 42 people have died of fever in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly and Badaun districts over the past 15 days, PTI reported on Friday. State officials said that three people each in Badaun and Shahjahanpur had died of the fever in the last three days.

Chief Medical Officer of Bareilly division Vinnet Kumar said 20 people had died in a fortnight in Bareilly district, while Chief Medical Officer of Badaun Manjeet Singh said fever had claimed the lives of 16 people in the last 15 days, apart from the three fresh cases.

Director General of Medical and Health Padmakar Singh said the state government has constituted three teams of doctors to look into the cases in Bareilly and Badaun. He also said most of the 36 people who died till Monday were diagnosed with viral fever, malaria or typhoid, according to The Indian Express.

Lucknow’s Director of Medical and Health (communicable diseases) Mithilesh Chaturvedi said a five-member team of the central government has also arrived in Bareilly. “Preventive and remedial actions have been initiated in both the districts,” Chaturvedi said, adding that camps have been set up in the districts and medical tests were being carried out using rapid diagnostic techniques.

Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, who had visited Bareilly earlier this week, said that the government will undertake a “death audit” to find out the number of those who died due to the fever.

He also suspended Additional Director (Health) SK Agarwal, Bareilly district Malaria Officer Pankaj Jaindue to the deaths, and District Health Officer Ashok Kumar and Jagatpur Hospital in-charge Sunita Bhardwaj because of a lack of cleanliness.